Bah, Humbug!

Please Note: If you are one of those "early Christmas" people, please know I am not judging you in any way. This is one of MY quirks. :) Feel free to decorate or sing carols to your hearts' content.

Back to our originally scheduled program...

It seems like just a few years ago, I would hear complaints about this time of year. "Did you see that _____ (insert name of store of your choice here) already has their Christmas decorations up?" "I was shopping the other day and actually heard Christmas music over the loudspeaker." "What happened to fall? It sounds like Christmas is here already." And yet every year, the stores continue to put up their Christmas decorations before Halloween is over, there are some Christmas lights not only hanging our area but already lit (including a local town hall), and every day I see comments on Facebook asking if it is too early to put up the Christmas tree, who has finished Christmas shopping, etc. And what do I have to say to all of that?

Bah, Humbug!

Don't get me wrong. Christmas is a special time of year. But it has its place. Late December. It isn't even quite mid-November.

What happened to fall? (My favorite time of year) Has Thanksgiving lost its appeal to people? Or have we just become brainwashed by the stores? (Reminds me of the story of how to cook a frog. Put it in water, and slowly...very slowly...turn up the heat. He will get used to it, and never realize he is cooking. Have we done that with Christmas too? Each year it gets earlier and earlier and now we don't even remember when it really is...)

I am holding on to fall with clenched fists. I love this time of year, as the leaves fall from the tree, football games are playing on Friday nights, and the air cools off ever so slightly. I love Thanksgiving. Just thinking about the word brings to mind family, food, friends. That and a few days of lounging.

After Thanksgiving...then I can think about what comes next.

Maybe I have become jaded. The last two Christmases we have dealt with theft...once in our house and the other when our Christmas cards (complete with kid pictures) that had arrived via Fed Ex were swiped from our front porch. (Don't feel bad if you didn't get a car...we ended up not sending them after all of that) Or maybe it is the financial aspect. We are coming off a couple of major spending incidents (neither which we would have chosen), so the thought of spending more makes me a bit queasy. Or maybe it is because I am just tired and living day by day in my Mommy role.

I just know that I am not ready for Christmas. Other than working on some lists and buying a few things (they were on sale), I am just not ready to think that far ahead. There will be no tree up at our house for a few weeks. No Christmas music playing in the background. And the Christmas decorations...well, I still have my fall foliage out. I am just not ready yet. I will be though.

Just let me eat my turkey first.

Gobble, gobble.
Reba